The Australian Home Builder

A fully illustrated guide to the key elements of building and renovating.

This practical book studies and details the whole house as a total project. It explains the trades, points out the pitfalls and leads you step-by-step through every planning and working stage from the critical siting of the house to the day you finally move in.

Many of my listeners, owner-builder students and readers have asked whether I could do a book setting out step by step how to build a conventional house.
There are several books dealing with the subject but all of them assume a level of building knowledge which the beginner clearly cannot have.
This book is intended to show by illustration and simply worded text each step in the home building process.
This book goes further than most others in that it is intended to be equally well understood not only by Australians but by those who do not have English as a first language. It also discusses landscape design, an integral part of building a house which is usually overlooked by other building writers.
Finally this book is intended as a “keep your eye on them” guide for home builders or renovators who, while not building their own homes, would still like to know that what the tradesmen are doing is what they should be doing.
— Bob Ryan